Restricting police from carrying firearms ill-conceived: BJP

Describing the Omar government's order of restricting security personnel from carrying lethal weapons while on duty, the BJP today said that the order was passed in total disregard of the principles of security deployment.

"The March 1, 2013 government order restricting the police and paramilitary personnel from carrying lethal weapons while on law and order duty is ill-conceived and unprofessional," BJP state chief spokesperson and national executive member, Jitendra Singh told reporters on Saturday.

A directive was issued by the ADGP (Law and Order) on March 1, which said all security forces deployed in law and order duty, should not carry firearms and weapons.

"Such a direction was passed in total disregard of the principles of security deployment and what is worst is, instead of maintaining confidentiality, which is expected in such security related decisions, the government order is an open secret known to militants, who have skilfully used it to ambush and target police and paramilitary personnel repeatedly during the past two weeks," he said.

It is ridiculous to note how the government justifies that police and para-military personnel carry weapons when fighting militants but not while on routine patrolling duty in militancy-affected areas, Singh said.

"Does the government expect militants to give a prior information of an attack?" he wondered.

He asked whether the chief minister and other ministers also disarmed their PSOs and SSG personnel, instructing them to pick up weapons only when attacked by militants.